Mimosas Anyone?

I am soooo happy I purchased this polish! China Glaze Mani's Before Mimosas is a beautiful pastel coral, very unique to my collection. I usually get so excited about coral shades when I see them online, but when I actually go out and buy and wear them they tend to mostly pull too pink on me :( I'm sure lighting, cameras and different skin tones are a factor, I am just glad to finally have the perfect coral for me shade :)

 

 

The photos above are the most accurate I could capture, they are with my camera flash. The images below are not as accurate on the nail, however they do show off the shimmer nicely. The colour that shows up in the bottle below is actually more accurate.

Mani's Before Mimosas is a coral cream with a slight gold shimmer, this is actually more visible in the bottle than on the nail, but this may also help the overall colour to lean more orange and coral. The formula was thick so I added some thinner to help smooth it out. After that it applied fine.

In my photos I only used two coats and made some slight touch ups to a few nails that looked a bit uneven from the thicker application (not shown, on my other hand). That being said, it evened out very well with a layer of topcoat.

February Haulin' in the U.S + Dollarama Polishes

Another haul for you guys today, this is the polish I purchased during the month of February. It's not too large, which is good, I'm actually trying to narrow down exactly what I am buying lately, I also need to clear some out soon and when I have the time I will be putting together a blog sale!

I will start off with a purchase I made a while back but finally received in Feb, my three for $10 Zoya polishes. These took a while for me to receive them because they only ship to the States, so I usually ship to family there and they bring them back to Toronto when they can :) The polishes I receive include Storm, Aurora and Skylar.

Storm is a black jelly polish sprinkled with holographic glitter flakes/particles. Unfortunately the sun has not been around lately so I can not show you just yet how glittery and great this polish is. Hopefully the sun will be out when I wear it for the first time!

 

Next is Aurora, which is apart of the same collection as Storm. Same idea but with a purple/magenta base and more saturated with glitter. This is so much better in person than I had imagined! For more on this polish, see this post.

 

And lastly I have Skylar, a springy sky blue with a gold glass fleck- like glitter that runs throughout. I had been wanting a polish like this for a while, OPI has a similar polish as well, I Have A Herring Problem, not 100% sure if they are dupes or not since I don't own the OPI, however comparisons I have seen on line lead me to believe they are pretty darn close.

Swatches of each polish are below.

lamp light

Natural Daylight

Next grouping of polish is from Sally's, would you believe I spend just over $10 for all four polishes?! One of the perks of my newly acquired pro card plus procard promotions! First up are the three from the latest spring collection, Avant Garden, Keep Calm, Paint On, Dandy Lyin' Around and Mimosas Before Mani's. Love these names :)

Keep Calm, Paint On is probably the lightest mint polish I own. The base is a creme and a silver shimmer runs throughout. From swatching this on my nail wheel I could tell the formula was a bit thick but manageable.

Dandy Lyin' Around is an interesting white polish, I have a fondness for white shimmer/glitters. The base seems to be a pretty stark white creme but the special part is the fleck-like white/gold shimmer that is present throughout. I wonder how this compares to Kwik-Sil-ver which is now discontinued.

Last from the spring collection is Mimosa's Before Mani's, this a coral/orange leaning pink creme which has a gold shimmer running throughout. I love my corals and was excited to see a new pastel one available. Sometimes my skintone makes them look more pink than i'd like, so I'll have to wait and see if it looks the way I want it to on the nail.

Another polish I purchased from Sally's is Mosaic Madness, apart of the Glitz and Glamor collection. This consists of multiple shapes and sizes of black and blur glitter in a clear base. Black glitter, my favorite!! I would so totally buy more in the collection, but don't necessarily need them. Hopefully they will go on sale sometime soon and I can pick up some more :) I love these new glitters coming out lately, you can tell the big polish companies are starting to get inspiration from the Indy ones which is awesome ;)

 

Swatches of each China Glaze polish are below.

Lastly I would like to include the polishes I mentioned back in February at the Dollarama, I only picked up three, Tender Teal, All Aglow, and Blue Frosting. These are all apart of the Sally Hansen Diamond Strength Limited Edition collection released back in mid-September 2012.

Tender Teal is a blue glass fleck foil. In the bottle it appears to be slightly duochrome but not so much on the nail. Two coats are shown below, more opaque than I originally expected.

 

All Aglow is a purple glass fleck foil, in the bottle this also appears to be a duochrome (purple to gold) but it is not to visible in most lighting conditions unfortunately. This is also another opaque polish in two coats.

 

Lastly my favorite, Blue Frosting. This one looked pretty duochrome in the bottle and it doesn't disappoint! Sure on it's own it is pretty sheer, but over a darker colour is where the magic really happens! It visibly shifts to From blue, teal, purple and pink, plus it has the foil/fleck finish. This is a very cool topper!

 

Swatches of each Sally Hansen are below, two coats each if I remember correctly :)

 

That is all for now :) Have you picked up any of the new spring collection polishes?

Animeniac Polish Review

I was contacted by a new to me polish brand a few weeks back about reviewing their polish. I am all about trying new brands, especially Indy plus it's Canadian! The story behind Amimeniac is so awesome, a mother helping her daughter to pursue a dream of creating her own polish and helping her to sell it to us die hard lacquer heads. What a great mom, right? Animeniac polishes are inspired by anime, manga, sci-fi, comics and gaming which is sure to produce some fun and interesting polishes for sure, plus they are big three free! I will have more on Animeniac in a future post, but today I have some swatches.

I was provided with four polishes, three samples and one full bottle. Today I will focus more on the samples and save the full bottle for a full mani and wear test later on.

The three polishes I will be talking about today are Mayham, Midas Touch and Browser Babe.

Mayham is composed of many irregular pieces and shapes of rainbow glitter. Very fun! Originally it wasn't my favorite, but after I tried it out on the nail I was in love! I can't choose which I like it over better, black or white? The layering combinations with this one are endless. Swatches on the nail follow at the end of the post. The formula of the clear base was pretty thin, which I prefer for glitter polishes because they are easier to apply on the nail, however I did find it a bit difficult to get a good amount of glitter on the brush for application, lots of shaking and fishing for glitter. Not sure if it was because it was in a smaller bottle? The brush was fine. I applied to the nail in a dabbing motion.

 

 

Next up is Midas Touch, this is a gold flakie glitter, super pretty. It reminded me immediately of a another polish in my stash, NYX Glided Gold, however when compared side by side, they are not considered dupes. This polish applied the eat out of the three I am showing you today. It has a thin formula and was easy to apply. It is really saturated with gold flakes and would look great layered over any polish.

 

Lastly I have Browser Babe, another polish topper with large blue and magenta hex glitter. The glitter in this one was a bit more difficult to fish out, however lager glitters generally are. I applied this to the nail in a dabbing motion it help better control placement of the glitter on the nail.

 

Below are swatches of each polish layered over black and white.

indoor, lamp lighting

outdoors, overcast

indoor, lamp lighting

Outdoors, overcast

To see what other polishes are available and to learn more about the brand and see the full selection of polishes available please visit the official site.

Inside Indy Polish - Vol. 1 Oopsie Daisies

Today I start a new series which delves deeper in to the indy polish lines that have been popping up more and more lately. We will get to know more about our favourite indy polish brands and get exposed to newer brands. Today in the first instalment I have my first interview with Cathryn of hotpinkaurora, the creator of the Oopsie Daisies polish line. Here is what she had to say:

Favorite polish finish: Ironically enough, it's creme! Most of my stash is consists of cremes in all shades. Something about a solid color, it looks nicest on my hands. I also have a soft spot for creme/milky glitters.

Festivus for the Rest of Us

Favourite polish colour: I really like pastel versions of nearly all colors. Baby pink, buttery yellows. OPI Did You Ear About Van Gogh? Is probably my most worn polish, which is a nude creme.

Favourite polish trend: I love the boom I've seen in free-hand nail art done with both acrylic paint and polish.

Favourite base coat: I use both Orly Bonder and Barielle Pro Argan Oil Nail Fortifier interchangeably, they both work great!

Carols by Candlelight

Favourite top coat: Out the Door is my absolute favorite.

What was the first polish you ever mixed? Banana Split! The other dessert themed polishes from the Sweet Treat Trio came shortly after.

What made you decide to start mixing/creating polish? I originally didn't intend on doing anything on the scale I am now. Banana Split was an idea that kept nagging me for months and months; I wanted one like it and couldn't find one anywhere.

Keepin' it Kosher

What made you finally start to mass-produce and sell your polish? I had some amazing nail polish friends help me out with some starter supplies to make Banana Split finally happen. When friends and family saw what I was doing, they encouraged me to open a shop and form a brand. I couldn't have done it without the support I received!


How long does it take you to make a batch/bottle of polish? From concept to final product, a couple of weeks. I've been testing glitters since last summer, so at this point I can confidently know which ones are safe to mix - that cuts down the time a lot. Once I have a batch made, I pour a sample bottle and check it often, making sure it's what I envisioned. Last Halloween I started getting ideas for this summer's collection - so I guess from concept to final product can be months!

Glacier

What is your favourite hand-crafted polish? Other Brand: I own a handful of Smitten polishes that I adore; it's a toss up between Confection and Candy Kisses!

Oopsie Daisies: My favourite creation of my own is probably Conversation Hearts. I love things that look like other things, I love novelties.

Where do you get your inspiration for collections?A weird mix between things that are fun to look at, video games and direct concepts from holiday themes. I have collections with inspirations from sweets, Seinfeld, an old 16-bit video game.. pretty much things that I like. I enjoy making polishes such as the Earthbound Collection which pulled inspiration from all aspects of the game, to holiday polishes that already have existing concepts that I like to rework to make them fit into the Oopsie Daisies motif. Conceptualizing and then making it happen is the best part of making polish.

Thanks again Cathryn for helping us get to know you better! Click here and here for full swatches of the polishes shown in this post which were apart of her Wintertime Wonders collection.

If you have your own Indy polish line and would like to be featured in a future installment of Inside Indy Polish please contact me directly!

Techno Teal

Woots! March is here which means that spring is (hopefully) on it's way :) I cannot wait for some more outdoor time and longer days, not to mention the warmer weather! I have totally been feeling the spring polish collections that have been released lately, especially China Glaze, such a great collection of fun spring shades. To slowly transition over to those light and bright polishes I have a slight holo beauty to share today, China Glaze Techno Teal, apart of the Sally's exclusive Electronica collection. I needed something to hold me over until the Hologlams are available ;)

 

I picked up Techno teal back when it was originally released, was it three years ago now? I got luck in Sally's when they released it a few days earlier and I just happened to stroll in. I had my pick of ANY colour I wanted, it looked as though they had a few full sets on display but I was very picky and choosy and I regret not picking up more shades from the collection. That being said Techno Teal does not have a strong linear holographic finish which would be comparable to the OMG collection or the Kaleidoscope collection. It has more of a holo shimmer that runs throughout, and I absolutely love it :) Unfortunately the sun wasn't around when I took photos, it just sparkles in the sun.

I only needed two coats for full opacity, and I must say that these polishes apply like the super holo kind so I'd recommend a proper base, which I forgot to use. Application wasn't too bad without it, but it should make things easier. I added Seche Vite on top, but am unsure if that made is glow less holo. I do prefer it with a top coat, I love a glossy finish.

overcast skies, boooo!

To me the shade is petty much identical to DV8 which is a linear holo, you can see my post on it here. It is one of my all time favourite polishes :) What is your favourite holo polish?

Extreme Close-up! Guess That Polish!

Hello all! This is a new feature I have started, it's basically macro shots of interesting polishes in my stash. Today I have featured swatches from an upcoming haul post I am putting together, can you guess each polish?

Each polish will be revealed shortly!

Small January Haul - New Revlon's

I picked up some new polish in late January!! I have actually been restricting myself lately, really thinking it through if I should buy certain polishes or not. I have such a large collection, I think I need to clean out my drawers and have a blog sale soon.

The first little purchase I made some newer shaded of Revlon. I picked up Sparkle Aplenty, Girly and Heavenly.

Sparkle Aplenty consists of silver glitter in a black base. It really different for a drugstore brand. In my swatches at the end of the post I used three coats.

Next is Girly. This is the one I could not decide on. The photos I saw online weren't the greatest and made it look thick and lumpy, this was most-likely due to application. This polish consists of a milky pink jelly base and an assortment of glitters ranging is colour and sizing. I really like this one! I think I can have some fun layering with it.

And lastly from Revlon what is known as a Deborah Lippmann Stairway to Heaven dupe, Heavenly. I don't own Stairway to heaven so I am not sure how close they are exactly, but from what I have seen in comparisons, they are very close. In my swatches I only used one thick coat on my nail wheel. The iridescent glitter is very dense in the translated base. What really makes this iridescent glitter special are the square shaped pieces of glitter, that is why I had to have it!

Swatches of each of the Revlons are below.

Next up a Sephora find, this is Come to Papa-razzi, I found this on clearance.

Come to Papa-razzi is a glitter topper which is comprised of various shapes and sizes of copper, glitter and black glitter. You can enlarge the photo below for a closer look.

I have purchased many different Glitters from the Sephora by OPI line, they are more interesting than the full coverage shades in my opinion. Stay tuned for a February haul post soon, I am in the process of putting that together now, I fell a little behind on posting the last few weeks and hope to catch up this week!